The Coffee House at Lifta

poem by Marc Kaminsky

In 2016, a film titled "Ruins of Lifta" was made by both Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky. Thus, following the accounts in the documentary, Kaminsky published the Stones of Lifta soon after and dedicated the book to his friend Menachem. This book consists of a series of poems that were inspired by the experiences Menachem had when he visited Lifta.

One of the poems titled "Coffee House at Lifta" stood out as a key piece of writing depicting the interaction between Menachem Daum who is an american jew and Lifta refugee, Yacoub Odeh. The coffeehouse of Lifta was also an important place as it was where members of the Stern Gang used sub-machine guns to attack the coffeehouse which killed 6 local Liftawi people and wounded 7. The attack occured on the 28th of December 1947. Following the attack, residents of Lifta started to flee for safety and it also marked the start of the Nakba in Lifta.

Thus, this poem portrays the pain Yacoub feels for having been forcibly evicted from his family home and the contradictions or hipocrisy that encircles a Jewish narrative for peace. Furthermore, the last few stanzas of the poem also reveal how Yoyneh was able to realize and understand why without the acknowledgement of the right of retun for the Palestinians, reconcilliation from both sides would not be able to happen.

With that in mind, this poem then critiques the previous proposal suggesting a blended identity in Lifta. The position of a blended identity is unable to justify the narrative of loss and right of return for the Lifta refugees. Hence, it is important that this thesis is able to evoke a sense of resistance in the project whether it be explicit or implicit.

In this book, the author talks about how the walking tour in Lifta is able to facilitate an opportunity for both Palestinian and Israeli students to talk which is not a usual occurence on the campus of the Hebrew University or anywhere else in general. Dr Golan-Agnon then goes on to transcribe some of the conversation between Palestinan and Israeli students. These conversations highlight the apparent disparity that these students experience in university.

For the Palestinian students, they expressed how there is a clear distinction on how they are treated in university. For instance, they do not feel included in a class setting as Palestinian students tend to sit together at the back of the class and Israeli students do not interact with them either. Apart from that, they also feel that the academic staff seem to cater their teaching to Israeli students rather than the for the whole class. Hence, when talking about the case of Lifta, some Palestinian students expressed that if Israeli people do not stand on their side and proactively engage and participate in the fight to resist occupation, then the Israelis are no friends of the Palestinians. Hence for the Palestinian students, the walking tour of Lifta is seen